About Gary

Gary is an award winning multi-platform producer, author, educator and Director. He was recently Senior Producer and Manager of Product Development at ABC TV Multi Platform responsible for delivering new editorial transmedia formats against ABC TV shows including dual screen, social TV, games and mobile. He founded the global training group StoryLabs.us in 2010 (previously founding and running innovation lab LAMP from 2005-10) growing innovative multi-platform, game, virtual world and transmedia productions. He is also currently CEO of Augmented & Virtual Reality company MUVEDesign.com (multi user virtual environments) and creating branded & story based multi platform for major brands. Gary was previously Senior Development Producer and Manager at the BBC in UK for 8 years – delivering interactive Social TV, broadband internet and emerging platforms to millions of UK users. After 2 years in the US as interactive producer and consultant Gary then became the founding director in Australia of the Innovation Training Unit LAMP.edu.au via AFTRS between 2005-10. He recently became a Distinguished Talent permanent resident in Australia and since 2005 runs the top ten AdAge Power150 Media & Marketing blog covering personalized pervasive entertainment, personalizemedia.com. Gary designed & lectured full time multiplatform courses at MetroScreen and AFTRS and adjudicates on Virtual Reality and Multiplatform for several Government Screen funding organisations and has been an award juror for many years including the International Interactive Emmy’s and recently Banff Media.

After many years working in the UK’s Music and Multimedia industry Gary joined the BBC in London as a multimedia editor and quickly became a Senior Development Producer then Manager and leading thinker in the BBC’s development of the internet, interactive TV and emerging platforms from 95-04. He devised & produced many of the BBC’s ‘firsts’ – Digital Text, the first broadcast interactive TV service – ‘Nomad’ the first live internet documentary – ‘X-Creatures’ the first interactive broadband TV service and even introduced the first video and audio onto the BBC’s internet sites in 1996. Gary produced and devised over 20 other eTV and broadband TV services including Top of the Pops, Travel Show, State Apart and several future BBC cross-platform navigators. He also initially conceived, with the linear show producers, award winning iTV projects such as Antiques Roadshow, Walking with Beasts & various BBC iTV game formats. Gary created numerous courses, incubators and seminars on Interactive thinking for linear producers, was active in the Blue Sky Imagineering and R&D depts looking at personal TV and virtual spaces and was a leading part of BBC strategy teams from 2001 in preparing for on-demand, cross-platform services.

Living & consulting in the US during 2004-5 he line produced Showtime’s PVR enhanced L-Word, as part of AFI digital labs and devised a range of new on-demand program formats for two national TV networks. Gary also produced & chaired conferences around LA including Hollywood industry panel seminars and Digital Days both looking at emerging media super-distribution models. He also chaired the TV-Anytime Business Models Group from 99-03 (the lead media-on-demand standards body) and co-authored a Department Trade and Industry Report on Personal Video Systems. He has been an International Interactive Emmy juror for several years.

Between 2005 -10 Gary was the Director the Australian Laboratory for Advanced Media Production run through AFTRS (Australian Film TV and Radio School) and based in Sydney and was probably Australia’s premier emerging media R&D and production labs. It combined seminars, workshops, immersive rapid prototyping residentials and industry focused product development. Through AFTRS he also ran workshops in multi user virtual environments (MUVE) for cinematographers, designers, script writers and directors exploring the potential of shared social online virtual spaces for collaborative production, creativity and education.

From a commercial perspective Gary is CCO and Head of Virtual Worlds with MUVEDesign (and previously the Sydney based Project Factory respectively) pioneering alternate, augmented & virtual world creation and immersive & organic story experiences for TV/Film, Education, Business & Performance. MUVEDesign are currently building and devising commercial and game-like services in Transmedia, Augmented Reality and also virtual worlds, having recently produced and built major Second Life Australian presences including Telstra, ABC, MultiMedia Victoria Laneways, Deakin University, AFTRS, Thursday’s Fictions & other Fortune 100 companies in Second Life. He runs a fictional MUVE blog JustVirtual and a renowned top 10 Australian Media and Marketing blog on media personalisation, digital brands, new media forms and creativity at www.personalizemedia.com and has presented at over 450 conferences on subjects ranging from Transmedia, Augmented Reality business, Advanced and Interactive TV, Personalization, Brands and Education in Virtual Worlds, Media Futures and Interactive Art and Music amoungst others. As a published music producer, composer and performer he has had over 200 works performed live and on TV/Film and Radio.

37 Responses to “About Gary”

I wanted to thank you for your social media counter. I linked it to my blog, and linked your site to mine, I hope that’s okay. I really enjoyed going through your site. I help small businesses and non-profits learn more about public relations and social media, so your site is a huge resource. Thank you again, I just wanted you to know I was very happy to have run across it.

That’s very kind Chris – glad you found it useful, I actually discovered uses for it even I didn’t intend – and thanks for linking too! Check out laurelpapworth.com too for loads of social media tips as well.

Wondering what widget you used to do your \connect with me\ buttons (RSS, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, You Tube). All I’m finding is Share widgets, plus I like the style of the ones you have. Any advice is much appreciated!

Congratulations on your site with its stimulating statistics. As an histoiran in the traditon of McLuhan I would be grateful if you could add dates re: when your website began.
With thanks and all good wishes
Yours truly
Kim
Kim H Veltman

I have absolutely no idea what you are up to. but I have the distinct feeling that you are absolutely right, and positioned at the cutting edge of what ever the hell it is you’re doing here. In explanation: I’.m 62 and use my computer like a typewriter.
I was wonderig if you could do something involving any one of our books. I have no real idea what to do with them either.estuarypublications.com
Thanks
Darryl Mockridge

Hi Gary i am writing a paper on “Applicability of Next Gen UX on business World” ..I want to use some of your content. For that i want to send u a permission letter. Please can u tell whats ur email Id(gmail preferably) ??